It was easily one of the coolest places I've ever been. 23% of the animals on the island are native to the Galapagos, so I got to see things you can't find anywhere else in the world. But the even more impressive part to me was that since the animals were never subjected to humans hunting and harming them, they're not scared of people. The birds will fly inches from your head, and let you come right up to them to take a picture of their mating and nesting rituals.
I'm definitely not going to remember most of their names, but my favorites were the sea lions, seals, giant tortoises and red and blue footed boobies, mostly because like a 15 year old boy, their names make me giggle.
Most of the days we were treated with a new animal to find in it's natural habitat. Marine iguanas so big they looked like baby dragons. Seals and sea lions and crabs the colors of the rainbow. There were a couple days we hit bad weather and were forced to turn back (after me getting soaked through a white tank top, pitching a typical Lori fit and returning to the boat), and one place where we had an hour-long fancy walk over dead brush without an animal in sight. But not everything can be perfect (although for these prices they should be!) and aside from those two, most of the islands were really cool.
The Galapagos islands themselves are actually formed from the lava that erupted from underwater volcanoes. They made all sorts of cool formations that we got to hike on and explore. Darwin found the islands and developed his theory of evolution here 150 years ago, an in 1959 the Ecuadorian government declared it a national park and have been raping tourists for thousands of dollars ever since.
The boat itself was interesting. That's not to say it was bad. It was just very small, and by day 2 everything in my backpack was damp and unwearable. I felt just as dirty as when I went to the jungle, except wet instead of muddy. The rooms are tiny, and you share them 2 to a room. Luckily my roommate was cool and we survived the cramped quarters. The boat is constantly moving to bring us to the next island, so on the choppy waters most of us were sick at least half of the time at sea. I was sick about all of the time the boat was in motion, which resulted in bedtimes of 8pm and going through 4 books over the course of the week while trying to hold my lunch down against the rocking. The second I was on the islands I was fine, but that rocking boat was brutal.
The daily snorkeling was great. I've never snorkeled before for a combination of reasons - fear of drowning, being an awful swimmer, claustrophobia, having a panic attack the one time I tried at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon water park when I was a kid... But since it was on our itinerary twice a day, I gave it a shot. It was much better than I expected. A weird feeling to swim (or dog paddle in my case) over giant schools of fish, and get right up close with a sea lion underwater. I purchased a waterproof camera for the trip, so in September when I develop it we'll find out if I was able to get anything on film! The last day I was determined to follow Maddie, Mave, Etan and Mordichai during snorkeling because they kept finding the coolest animals - octopuses, sea turtles, etc. I followed them out into the water and Mordichai pointed out a giant sea turtle, probably about 3 feet wide. I was terrified of being so close to it, but it was amazing to see him hanging out under water posing for our pictures. All of a sudden, the seals decided it was time to play. I heard someone call my name to point them out, but I had definitely already noticed. The seals were circling around us in the water, going right up to our faces and then swimming away to surprise us again. That was my cue to get out of the water, because every time the seal came near me I screamed and swallowed a mouthful of sea water. Way to keep my cool. It's not that I didn't find it amazing. It's more that I rarely go in the ocean, and in swimming pools Shamu's friends usually don't come out to play.
By the last day we still hadn't seen blue footed boobies, which I was irrationally upset about. I'd never even heard of boobies of any kind before this trip, but Mave andhad Etan had bought blue footed booby shirts and out of principal I wanted to see them. Otherwise, what a sham to sell those shirts at the souvenir stand! But as we were getting ready to get off the boat, there they were waiting for us - 4 beautiful, blue footed boobies in all their glory. My trip was now complete! Well, I guess it was really complete after we went to get in the dinghys to get to land and 2 sharks were circling the boat. But I'll omit that part and end with the boobies :)
Top 10 things I learned on my trip to the Galapagos Islands:
1) I will never be a mermaid
2) My dreams of working as an entertainment director on a cruiseship are officially shelved
3) Snorkels are not scream proof
4) I am not Steve Irwin
5) Baby giant tortoises are not extraordinary, they look exactly like Myrtle and Alvin, the turtles I had growing up
6) I will never live on a houseboat
7) Pavlov's theory works - people, like rats, will come for food when a bell rings
8) The word booby is funny, even if you're not a 15 year old boy
9) My name hasn't stopped being Dory in Ecuador
10) I really enjoyed being away from Internet for a few days, although I really miss my daily emails with my friends (Caryn and Becca, you both get a shoutout here because your emails made me so happy when I did finally get to check them!) After a while of being away, you start to think people forgot about you. But seeing that my friends are reading my blog and caring that I'm lost in between countries and just sending me emails to say hi and I miss you here and there really mean a lot and even further solidify our friendships. So, while I'm in a sentimental mode, muchos besos y abrazos to you guys!
Our flight to Quito was supposed to stop in Guayaquil after 1.5 hours, then continue on to Quito for a 3.5 hour total flight. Randomly, our pilot decided to skip Guayaquil, and we made it to Quito in only 2 hours. I have no idea why or how this happened, nor do I care because for once it was in my favor. I decided since I am completely out of clean clothes, to skip my overnight in Quito and head straight to Otavalo, which I had planned on heading to in the morning. So I acted on impulse, which was taking a cab straight to the bus station and am now on my way to Otavalo. The 2.5 hour ride only cost $2.20, which was the same price for a Twix bar at the Galapagos airport. I forgot until I was on the bus that my friends Sarah and James were in Quito tonight, since my head is somewhere still in the Galapagos, so I'm hoping they're still there on Sunday when I finally make it there.
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